Daily Inspiration Quote by Wavy Gravy

Wavy Gravy’s line lands like a joke that refuses to stay a joke. “We are all the same person” is a cosmic claim, but he grounds it in the wonderfully awkward image of “trying to shake hands with our self.” A handshake is public, slightly performative, and built for strangers; turning it inward suggests how clumsy we are at recognizing our own reflection in other people. It’s not “we’re one” as a pious slogan. It’s “we’re one” as a social problem: the machinery of separation keeps reaching across the table, misjudging distance, and grabbing air.

The intent reads as activist strategy disguised as hippie whimsy. If the other is basically you, cruelty becomes self-harm, and politics becomes a form of self-care with consequences. The subtext is also self-mocking: humans keep inventing elaborate ideologies to accomplish what a simple gesture would do, if only we could coordinate. “Trying” matters; unity isn’t a settled truth, it’s an ongoing, error-prone practice.

Context sharpens it. Wavy Gravy emerged from the counterculture where theater, protest, and spiritual play overlapped; his persona always treated humor as a delivery system for ethics. In that world, sincerity alone was too easy to co-opt, but comedy could slip past defenses. The phrase “shake hands” evokes truce-making, coalition building, and basic decency, implying that the work of movements is less about defeating enemies than about recognizing projections: the “them” we fight is often our own fear, ego, or hunger for belonging wearing a different outfit.